Political corruption

Greece's chief corruption prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki, who is facing investigation over the judicial handling of the Novartis bribery probe, claims to have been a victim of "a coordinated attempt at moral extermination."

The new National Defence Strategy for 2020-2024 reiterates Romania's "commitment" to the rule of law, with the document categorizing the corruption phenomenon as a "security risk," said presidential adviser Ion Oprisor - National Security Department, in a statement sent by the Presidential Administration to AGERPRES on Thursday.

Four out of the five categories that make up the average score deteriorated. Civil liberties: down. Political culture: down. Functioning of government: down. Electoral processes and pluralism: you guessed it.

The only category that registered an uptick was "political participation", reflecting "a rising tide of popular protest" that "shook regimes run by despots and democrats alike".

In a statement published by the US Embassy in Bulgaria on February 5, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly announced that Bulgarian Specialized Criminal Court judge Andon Mitalov was barred from entry to the US because of involvement in significant corruption, BNT reported.

Just two months after receiving a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a bribery scandal concerning German giant Siemens, a former senior executive of the company's Greek branch was released from jail citing health reasons.

By decisions adopted at a meeting today, the Commission for Combating Corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property has initiated proceedings for establishing a conflict of interest with respect to six senior public officials under Art. 6 para. 1 of the anti-corruption law, said the Commission's press office quoted by Focus News Agency. These persons are:

"She brought a spirit of positive energy that has broken the bad mood that Slovaks have had for a long time," Zuborova, an analyst at the Bratislava Policy Institute think tank, told BIRN in an interview.

"She also represented a new hope that Slovakia might take a different direction than the rest of Central Europe."

Greece needs to take tougher stance against bribery offenses involving state officials, the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report published on Wednesday.